Let's be careful. DRC being "gold standard" and needing "100% compliance" is problematic at many tech nodes (as the previous reviewer pointed out for memories, etc). but for stdcells and APR area as well. Any time a fab "signs off" on a DRC failure, then by default, the deck is NOT golden. In the long run, the fab may choose to keep the offending rule and have the design house jump through the hoop, but if a process can accept a "signed off" issue once and yield product, then it COULD do so at any other time (for that rule). On the other hand, as the previous reviewer pointed out, DRC alone isn't enough anymore,... DFM and the "well how lucky do you feal" syndrome is raising it's dirty (harry) head.